Superintendent's Report - May 26, 2015

Leadership Team Update

Due to MCAS testing, the District
Leadership Team has not met since the morning of our last school committee
meeting.

Mulready Principal Search Update

The Mulready Principal Screening Committee chaired by
Brian Reagan has been appointed. The committee is comprised of 19 members:

9 Mulready Staff Members

5 Administrators (not including Mr. Reagan)

5 Parents

The screening team held its first meeting on Wednesday,
May 20th at 6:00 p.m. in the Hudson High School Library. The Committee
was charged with the task of identifying two to three qualified individuals who
will be a good match for this critical position. The Committee began to develop
a rating rubric to identify the most suitable applicants, as well as a protocol
to score candidates after interviews. The Committee also reviewed survey
results on desired characteristics of the next Mulready Principal. There were
42 responses to the survey that was sent to Mulready staff and families. A
preliminary numerical review shows that the following five leadership
characteristics were most important to respondents:

Is courageous in all decisions keeping
student learning at the core of decisions;

Works with all colleagues to help define and
promote high expectations; and

Develops a learning community of teachers who
guide one another in improving instruction

I hope to appoint the next Principal of Mulready
Elementary on or about June 18th.

Finance and Operations

Budget

Patty Lange and her staff are actively
working on budget forecasts each week. This has taken a tremendous amount of
time and effort, but we want to be able to provide the most accurate
information that we can. We continue to experience shifts in special education
costs, such as tuitions and contracted services that are resulting variation in
each forecast. As we get closer to the end of the year, our forecasting of
these costs is getting more accurate resulting in a more reliable forecast.

Budget Forum

We will have a community
budget forum on Monday, June 1st at 6:30 p.m. in the Hudson High School
Mini-theater. This meeting will be preceded at 6:00 p.m. by a Friends of Hudson
Public Schools Meeting. The community is invited to both. We are hoping that we
will have a better understanding of what the Chapter 70 revenue from the State
is, as well as a very recent forecast. We will then be able to update the
community on what cuts may need to be made.

Curriculum and Instruction Update

Project Lead the Way Trade Show

The 2nd
Annual PLTW Trade Show was held on Wednesday, May 13, 2015 at Hudson High
School. Students from all PLTW courses (Grades 5-12) presented projects
showcasing material learned throughout the year. This year the
Engineering Development and Design students presented their year-long project
“A Better Zipper” in which they designed an alternative zipper. The team
of students (Edj Andrews, Josh Joseph, Kyle Penniman, and Derek Hire) presented
their project to a team of engineers (Mike Polia, Mike Kahn, and Sarah
Maston). Thank you to PLTW Steering Committee for their support during
the 2014-2015 school year and our PLTW teachers—Ryan Dailey, Rebekah Whitesel,
Eric Ahearn, and Kate Cellucci.

Superintendent’s Items of Interest

Journalism Awards

Freshman Dakota Antelman and
senior Alex Schley were chosen to attend the Carole Remick New England High
School Journalism Collaborative. They made it through the application process
and two rounds of interviews before finding out last weekend that they were selected.
They will spend one week in this free program working with other high school
students in the area, as well as professionals from the Boston Globe. They will
write and publish stories every day that week. It will be a very valuable
experience for them.

TAMY Award Nominations

The TAMY Award program
recognizes the extraordinary amount of work, creativity, and devotion that
faculty and students pour into their high school theatrical productions. The
program intends to celebrate the entire art of musical theatre: casts and
crews, directors and designers and the great musical theatre works that inspire
such devotion. (Retrieved from: http://mwcc.edu/tam/tamy/
5/22/15.)

The TAMY nominations have
come out and I wanted to let you know that Hudson was nominated- and in some
cases won- several awards!

I want to acknowledge and
thank Kathleen McKenzie for her hard work and dedication to making the HHS
Theatre Program as strong as it is. This is an outstanding recognition by
adjudicators that view high school productions across Central Massachusetts.

Superintendent’s Parent
Advisory Team

I
held my second to last Parent Advisory Team meeting on 5/19/15. We enjoyed a
lively discussion about summer reading in grades 9-12 when we were joined by
Todd Wallingford

Amazon Night

As you know, in April, 29 students, 3 teachers
and 2 media specialists traveled to the Peruvian Amazon. On the evening of
Friday, May 22nd, students shared their stories and premiered the
documentary filmed byCameron
Ciesluk while he accompanied them on this journey. Follow the link below
for a glimpse of the documentary. We are very excited that this documentary
will enable people to experience the trip and amazing experience that our
students had.

School Visits

Quinn- May 13th

Farley– May 14th

Forest- May 20th

Enrollment

All enrollment numbers are up to date
as of the writing of this report. They are unofficial numbers. The
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education collects
snapshots of enrollment data three times per year October, March, and June. I
will provide you with monthly enrollment numbers so that you can be aware of
the amount of fluctuation that may or may not be occurring on a monthly basis.